Free ALTDORF (The Forest Knights: Book 1) by J. K. Swift Page B

when the strap bit into his exposed flesh and when it was done he would limp away, but not without smiling or winking at a few of the other children, as if to say you know it was worth it.
    The Schwyzers were inducted into the Order of Saint John as brother-sergeants; fighting men. They were required to take the Vow of Obediance, and the Vow of Poverty, but not the Vow of Chastity, and that Pirmin often said, was God’s way of telling him that it was his duty to share himself with the female populace. Thomas knew, of course, it merely showed that the Schwyzers were meant to be an expendable military arm of the Order and, since their life expectancy was so very short, nothing more was expected of them.
    Still, living amongst monks and priests had had its influence, and unlike Pirmin, Thomas had taken his studies seriously. Women were the origin of sin and Satan’s ultimate instrument of temptation. One that Thomas had successfully resisted his entire life, though he saw little evidence of the Devil in most women.
    “I wonder what he is doing now?” Pirmin said suddenly.
    “Who?”
    “You know, my son.”
    “You cannot be talking about the whore you imagined you planted your seed in?” Thomas said.
    “Of course. A man can tell when he has sired offspring, you know. Wonder if he looks like me? Or his mother…cannot rightly recall what she looked like though. Comely I think.”
    Thomas shook his head. “If you left that woman with child she no doubt went to a witch and had it rooted out.”
    “No,” Pirmin said, shaking his head. “I would have known. And why so negative brother? Jealous I have a son out there somewhere?”
    “Probably a daughter. A seven-foot hulking brute of a daughter terrifying the countryside.”
    Pirmin grimaced and clenched his teeth. The possibility of a daughter had never entered his mind.
    “Nah, not possible. Definitely a boy.”
    They rode on in silence for a while, the muted thudding of hooves on grass the only sound.
    “You ever think about it Thomi? Having a family?”
    “No,” he said.
    “You should think on it. This would be a nice place to raise one, and I do not know how much longer I will be around. Have to push on to Wallis soon, I suppose.”
    Thomas nodded, forgetting it was probably too dark for Pirmin to see the gesture. He would miss the man deeply when he left, though he would never let Pirmin know that. For over thirty years the Order had been his family, and it was strange to imagine being alone, truly alone. Strange, but not frightening, like he had once thought it would be.
    A peace washed over him as he imagined living out the rest of his life as a ferryman on the shores of this lake, knowing he had served out his time as God’s soldier to the best of his ability. Perhaps this stage of his life was his reward for faithful service. A taste of Heaven here on Earth.
    “Why so quiet? What are you thinking about Thomi? You make me nervous when you get like that.”
    Thomas took a deep breath of the warm night air. He nudged Anid with his knees to pick up the pace. The stallion surged ahead.
    They were both eager for home.

Chapter 7

    G ISSLER HOVERED at the edge of the trees looking at the small hovel in the distance. An aged man struggled across the muddy courtyard carrying a bucket of slop, each jerky step causing a foul splash down his leg. Finally, with a Herculean effort he upended the bucket into a pigpen’s trough, and a half dozen dirty sows squealed with delight.
    The man was gaunt, a fact even the full grey beard and baggy russet clothes could not conceal. Gissler recognized the man as his brother only on some primal, spiritual level, for there was nothing left of the proud older boy he had looked up to as a child. Hugo was only five years older than Gissler, but the bent, misshapen figure shuffling about the pigpen looked to be in his sixties. Gissler could not remember even his father looking as old, or broken, as his brother did now.
    The Gisslers had